One of Theirs
by 19sweetgirl96
Summary: Short introspective piece of end of Angel 5x11 Damage. Angel's reaction and point of view of his confrontation with Andrew after Dana is taken away.


Hi Everybody! Been awhile since I've wrote anything, let alone for Buffy/ Angel community. If you look at my profile you'll notice that I don't post a lot, but I have favorited basically any good story that has substance to it that is Buffy/ Angel related. I suggest you check it out if you're looking for something to read because you'll probably find something that interests you.

Disclaimer: All rights go to Joss Whedon. I do not own Angel or characters mentioned.

Takes place at end of Angel 5x11 Damage

19sweetgirl96

* * *

Walking out of the factory, Angel let a sigh escape him. He didn't save her, not completely, but maybe he would get the chance. He had faced worse odds in trying to rehabilitate Faith, and that had been for the most part, successful. Faith had found her center and had taken the first step by realizing she needed help. Before Spike had been wheeled away, he admitted that Dana had shown a sign of regret for torturing her. He could help Dana, stop her from becoming too far gone. For all of the faults Wolfram and Hart has, the law firm does have ways to help Dana. She couldn't be more messed up than some of the team. After some time, she could get better. She can become healed and then figure out her life for her own, whether that was to join her sister slayers, or find some attempt at a peaceful, normal life. He felt a twinge of hope in his chest. Things didn't have to add badly for her.

Andrew stepped in front of him and Angel stopped, out of respect towards Buffy that anything else the child could offer.

"She's a slayer," Andrew said. "That means she's ours."

Theirs. As he announced that he was taking the slayer back to Wolfram and Hart, Angel felt his irritation with this child grow. Who does he think he is, that he would know how to deal with this or what she's going through? He's not one of us. Buffy would back Angel up. Buffy would understand that the best people to help Dana right now weren't her teenage slayers who hadn't been touched by darkness, but rather people who understood Dana. People like Angel and Spike. They couldn't handle her. She was unsteady right now, in a place that could harm other people. If something went wrong, they wouldn't be able to handle her no matter how many slayers surrounded her. The slayers wouldn't be able to help their sister, they would only make it worse.

Andrew brings out his threat of the slayers and looks at him accusingly, "Think we're going to let you take her back to your evil stronghold?"

Angel paused in his advances. They weren't evil, they were doing real good. Isn't that what they've all been telling themselves since taking over Wolfram and Hart? The whole team has had conscience crisis' throughout the last few months. Andrew's accusations were coming at the wrong time, when just the other morning Gunn had professing how glad he was that the team was the new leadership of Wolfram and Hart, while Angel had been regretting it. Dana had given them a new focus to do the good thing, the better thing.

"... And not one of them has ever dated you," Andrew states smugly, as if this is one of his stupid movies he enjoys making more dramatic than needed to be.

His jab at Angel's relationship with Buffy hurts, more than it should, because Andrew doesn't know anything about them or their relationship, he wasn't even in the picture when they dated.

"You're way out of your league. I'll just clear this with Buffy."

Andrew had no claim to the group or the events that happened when Buffy was in high school, he just based what he knew off of stories and rumors. He wasn't as central to the group as he claimed to be. There was no way that his intruding on Buffy's group the last year she was in Sunnydale would make him understand what they went though. Buffy would take his side. No matter how complicated their relationship seems, they both know that they can count on the other to be doing what's best for others. It was after all, why they weren't together. The last time they had talked face to face, they had parted on good terms, both accepting that there may be a possible future with the other in it someday, when they were both ready. As far as he knew, that hadn't changed in the last six months, even with his new position at Wolfram and Hart.

"Where do you think my orders came from?"

Angel hesitates before replying, because although the Buffy he knew wouldn't have sent this immature child for him to deal with, suddenly things make a little more sense. Like, how she wouldn't answer his call the day before, asking about what she thinks of the Dana situation. Suddenly, Angel feels a chill run through him because no matter what he has always been able to trust her with the important things. How could she trust Andrew and his gang of six month old fighting slayers to take care of a psychotic, rouge girl who had been tortured as a child more than Angel? Hurt washes through him because it's Buffy and things have never been so bad when he had a soul, that she couldn't trust him to do his job. To do what is best for his city.

"News flash. Nobody in our camp trusts you anymore. Nobody.

Angel feels the words isolate him and he looks around the faces of the slayers and sees all of them staring blankly at him, as if he is just a vampire, and only a vampire, not someone who has helped to save their lives multiple times. Could Andrew say that? No, because he always hid behind his movies and comics like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. They don't trust him because of his past, along with his current employment. He was trying to climb out of sinkhole of sand, and wasn't getting anywhere.

"You work for Wolfram and Hart. Don't fool yourself."

Once again he is reminded of his association with the known evil law firm and it feels like a weight bearing on his shoulders, suppressing him from achieving real good. If every good deed he tries to do at Wolfram and Hart doesn't change peoples prejudices against the law firm, what's the point of trying? They've had to let some people go, people they usually would have tried to destroy or lock in jail. There had to be a balance, so they tried to take the worst cases and destroy the worst of the demons they encountered at Wolfram and Hart.

"We're not on the same side."

And there it was. The final dramatic statement Andrew had been dying to say, to rub in Angel's face that no matter what he tried to do, the slayer side would never trust him. He was condemned by the group he had once fought for valiantly, and damned for helping Wolfram and Hart. It didn't hurt as badly as he thought. In some part of his mind, he had known. No matter how hard he tried, he would always be the distrustful member in a war that let him fight only because of convenience.

"Thank you for your help, but we got it."

Angel watched helplessly, distantly as the stretcher Dana lies on is wheeled by her sister slayers, and he sees his chance at helping her slip through his fingers. Later, he will talk with Spike about how she is a monster, regardless of the fact that she was an innocent victim, just like Spike and Angel once had been. And that was the thing the "other" side would never get. Only monsters can help each other.

Wesley questions him as Andrew slowly backs away cockily. "So that's it. You're just going to let him take her."

Angel stares at Andrew's group that is quickly leaving the scene into the shadows, and replies, "She's one of theirs," thinking of the fact that no matter how similar she is to his team or how much darker Dana will be than her sisters, she would never have been one of his.


End file.
